Guelph fires deputy CAO after privacy breach

The City of Guelph says it "ended its employment relationship" with Mark Amorosi after confidential information was accidentally sent to a lawyer working for a "an individual with whom the city is in litigation." (Kate Bueckert/CBC News)

Mark Amorosi is no longer Guelph's deputy chief administrative officer of corporate services after confidential files were unintentionally given to the lawyer of a former employee who is suing the city.

On Feb. 3, the city announced files containing confidential information were inadvertently sent to a lawyer, along with files the city had to send about the case. City officials declined to say which case was involved.

"The electronic media used to deliver these files also inadvertently included files not relevant to this litigation that had been deleted, but not permanently erased," the city said in a release.

Amorosi didn't send the files himself, but as the leader of the service area involved, he is "bearing ultimate responsibility," according to a release from the city.

Amorosi 'a dedicated public servant'

City officials did not indicate what the files contained. The Feb. 3 statement from the city's CAO Derrick Thomson said staff had asked for the files back but they had not been returned.

"We continue to pursue recovery of this information," the statement said.

On Thursday, it was announced the city had "ended its employment relationship" with Amorosi because of the privacy breach.

"Notwithstanding this isolated event, for which Mark is bearing ultimate responsibility, he has made a number of valuable contributions to the City of Guelph," Thomson said in the release Thursday. "He is a dedicated public servant whose priority has always been the citizens of Guelph."

Corrections

An earlier version of this story stated that Mark Amorosi unintentionally sent confidential emails to a lawyer. The city of Guelph confirmed to CBC that Amorosi himself did not send those emails, but as the senior leader of the service area, he is bearing the responsibility of those emails being sent.